Report: Russian Military Developing Anti-Drone ‘Microwave Gun’

MANAMA, BAHRAIN- DECEMBER 06: A Scan Eagle drone sits on the deck of the USS Ponce, on December 6, 2013 in Manama, Bahrain. Secretary Hagel is on a six-day trip to the middle east before returning to Washington. US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel toured the Ponce which was recently refitted and converted to a staging base for mine countermeasures helicopters and carries a laser weapons system. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (CBS DC) — The state-owned Russian defense firm, United Instrument Manufacturing Corp., reported to state-owned news site Sputnik that they’d developed a microwave-based weapon they plan to show off privately at the Russian Defense Ministry’s Army-2015 expo June 16-19.

“The new system is equipped with a high-power relativistic generator and reflector antenna, management and control system, and a transmission system, which is fixed on the chassis of BUK surface-to-air missile systems,” a UIMC spokesman told Sputnik News. “When mounted on a special platform, the ‘microwave gun’ is capable of ensuring perimeter defense at 360 degrees.”

The U.S. has a similar microwave weapon in development, the “Counter-electronics high-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project” missile targets electronics inside buildings. The CHAMP missile would shut down computers, radio communication and other electronic functions to disable a building’s defenses.

Russia’s microwave gun is also reportedly capable of suppressing the radio equipment of low-altitude aircraft and the ability to scramble the guidance, precision systems in drones and assault vehicles on the ground.